Zorin OS 15 Core

Any Ubuntu-based distro has to pull something special to get into the good books of Mayank Sharma. Has he found a unicorn, or a one-trick pony?

We’ve seen the likes of Zorin OS before, in Pinguy OS and elementary OS. These are distros with tweaked desktops that take advantage of their Ubuntu base to ease new users into the Linux desktop. Zorin does the exact same thing, but the way it goes about it is what sets it apart from others.

The newest v15 release is based on the latest update of the Ubuntu 18.04 LTS release. The distro’s goal is to package the goodness offered by Ubuntu into a system that’s made accessible thanks to its “familiar interface”. For this the developers have mutated the Gnome 3 desktop to sport a single panel along the bottom of the screen, which is very reminiscent of Windows’ taskbar. It completes the look with a traditional Applications menu on the left, followed by a few app launchers, the taskbar area, a system tray and a notification area on the other end. Even the layout and behaviour of the custom Applications menu is Zorin’s attempt to ape the proprietary OS.